Seahawks Multiple Tight End Excellence Continues
The Seahawks offense excelled in week 2 via 12 personnel and 13 personnel. These multiple tight end looks powered Seattle’s Geno Smith-led offense to victory at the Detroit Lions:
The Seahawks’ selection of Jaxon Smith-Njigba in the first round of the 2023 draft generated excitement over the offense’s potential in three-wide receiver personnel groupings—Smith-Njigba teaming up with DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett. However, the early success of Seattle’s attack has arrived with JSN off the field, and offensive coordinator Shane Waldron instead using multiple tight ends to pose problems for defenses.
This is a continuation of an approach that led to some of the Seahawks’ best offensive moments in the 2022 season. The talent of Will Dissly, Noah Fant, and Colby Parkinson is a real problem for opponents.
And it was this resumed accenting of tight ends that saw the Detroit Lions defense really suffer. Geno Smith targeted his group 10 times, and the quarterback was rewarded with 10 catches—albeit with one snag coming back on offensive pass interference.
“They did really well,” Pete Carroll said of the Seahawks’ tight ends on Monday. “The group played great. Everybody contributed in their own ways. They were a big part of the gameplan yesterday.”
The multiple tight end data from Seattle’s win in Detroit, courtesy of Sports Info Solutions, speaks volumes.
12 personnel (1 RB, 2 TEs, 2 WRs)
11 total snaps, 64% success rate
6 pass attempts, 5 completions, 54 passing yards, 1 passing touchdown, 9 yards per attempt, 16.7% pressure percentage, 2.34 EPA, 0.39 EPA per drop back, 0.278 points earned per play
5 rushing attempts, 19 yards, 2 rushing touchdowns, 0.257 points earned per play, 1.50 EPA
13 personnel (1 RB, 3 TEs, 1 WR)
13 total snaps, 54% success rate
7 pass attempts, 6 completions, 103 passing yards, 14.7 yards per attempt, 42.9% pressure percentage, 5.51 EPA, 0.79 EPA per drop back, 0.405 points earned per play
6 rushing attempts, 12 yards, 0 touchdowns, -1.43 EPA, 0.267 points earned per play
That 0.79 EPA per drop back out of 13 personnel, almost earning a point every time Geno Smith dropped back to pass, is astonishing.
The Lions, particularly from a pass coverage perspective, ultimately lacked the tools to defend these multiple tight end looks. Defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn, like other play callers on that side of the ball, would have had a smaller “ready list” for these looks—that is the amount of plays installed for multiple tight ends. This is especially true for 13 personnel.
Meanwhile, Detroit’s response was to put just the four defensive backs on the field, utilizing base personnel to defend the extra run gaps. For Seattle’s tight end group, this presented positive mismatches versus the Lions linebackers. Plus, at times, wide receivers facing a ‘backer in the slot rather than a DB.
Per the Athletic Football Podcast, in total the Seahawks forced the Lions into base defensive personnel on 11 drop backs, resulting in nine efficient plays and six explosives. Overall, Detroit played 22 plays in base, from which Seattle picked up 12 first downs.
These advantageous match-ups combined with a lack of defensive solutions for success. And Waldron as a schemer deserves credit for being diverse in his looks out of these groupings, mixing under center with both pistol and shotgun formations.
The backup tackles Seattle played on their offensive line, Stone Forsythe on the left and Jake Curhan on the right, benefitted from the way in which the Seahawks were able to conflict Detroit’s underneath coverage defenders while moving quarterback Geno Smith out of the pocket via run fakes. “You saw us move the football all around with the quarterback and the actions and stuff,” Carroll praised on Monday.
Waldron also employed tight ends in chip protection, out of the backfield, to help his second-string offensive tackle pairing. “I was really fired up about that, they minimized their strengths,” Carroll said of Waldron and the offensive coaching staff on Monday. “We thought that their rush might be a problem for our guys on the edge, the multiplicity, the small changes, the tactics of our protection was designed beautifully for this game.”
We broke down the visible-on-tape impact of these tight ends in the latest edition of the Seattle Overload podcast:
Something to keep track of is whether the Seahawks are able to sustain this multiple tight end usage. Will Dissly, Seattle’s best blocker of the group, appeared on this week’s injury report as a non-participant with a shoulder injury. That saw the team sign 2023 undrafted free agent tight end Brady Russell off the Philadelphia Eagles practice squad, a relative unknown. The Seahawks offense may have to find other ways to keep moving the ball, perhaps leaning more on their receivers and the tantalizing Smith-Njigba.
